Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:1434-1439
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Interhemispheric transfer deficit and alexithymia
SB Zeitlin, RD Lane, DS O'Leary and MJ Schrift
Department of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Health Sciences Chicago Medical, IL 60064.
The hypothesis that alexithymia reflects a functional disconnection between
the two cerebral hemispheres was examined in 25 male combat veterans with
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Multiple regression analysis revealed
that the efficiency of interhemispheric communication, evaluated with a
tactile finger localization task, was a significant predictor of the degree
of alexithymia, as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, independent
of PTSD severity and IQ. The PTSD subjects without alexithymia did not
differ on the finger localization task from 10 male control subjects
without alexithymia. These data suggest that at least some forms of
alexithymia may be mediated by an interhemispheric communication deficit.
